News story

QA trainer is finalist for prestigious BCS award

London, UKLearning NewsQA

Darren Burford, Technical Training Consultant at QA, Training Company of the Year 2005, has been selected as a finalist for the prestigious 'Trainer of the Year' award in the third British Computer Society IT Professional Awards.

The annual cross-industry awards aim to recognise and promote excellence, professionalism, innovation and the outstanding achievements to which individuals and groups contribute. The 'Individual Excellence' award for which Darren has been nominated required him to demonstrate the ability to understand the needs of learners and organisations and to develop and deliver successful training programmes leading to significant performance improvement. Evidence of measurement of the training effectiveness was also an important part of the nomination process.

Commenting on his nomination, Darren said; "I am delighted to be selected as a finalist for this award. I see this as a great honour, and it reflects the hard work I've put into learning and development over the past year. I'm grateful for the support from QA and the opportunities I've had to learn from my peers as well as from working closely with customers to help them meet their goals. I feel proud to have been shortlisted and proud for the rest of the team that supported me in this success."

Director of Learning at QA, Brian Sutton, adds; "Darren is a great asset to QA, and his nomination for this award shows the enthusiasm and passion he brings to the courses he teaches. He is a widely respected expert in the area of web development, particularly with ASP and ASP.NET, and is rapidly establishing a reputation as an accomplished and recognised conference speaker.

"Delegates attending learning programmes with QA's can only benefit from the expertise of talented instructors like Darren, who have an enviable combination of technical knowledge and industry participation as well as the ability to help others learn new skills."

Following presentations by the finalists in each category, the awards winners will be announced at a black-tie dinner held on 29 September at London's Park Lane Hilton hotel.